SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — A San Diego police officer was injured Thursday when a driver backed a vehicle into him while fleeing a traffic stop near a Mira Mesa intersection, police said.
The motorcycle officer pulled over a black sedan for unknown reasons shortly before 10:10 a.m. near the intersection of Westview Parkway and Black Mountain Road, and the driver backed up and struck him before taking off, San Diego Police Department Officer Tony Martinez said.
It was not immediately clear if the officer was on foot or on the motorcycle when he was struck.
Medics were called to the scene, but the extent of the officer's injuries and if he was taken to the hospital was unclear.
The vehicle was described as a black sedan with an Arizona license plate starting with the letters "FTA."
"The vehicle stopped right in the roadway, slammed on his breaks, put it in reverse, reved up and then intentionally ran back into our motor officer, knocked over the officer and then continued to push him in the roadway. So it was clearly an intentional act," said Andra Brown with SDPD. The officer was taken to the hospital alert, talking and helping officers out any way he could before getting treatment. Brown says, that’s typical. "Whenever we're walking and talking we're in the mission and we're going to stay on it."
The officer involved wasn’t alone, SDPD says there were several “Good Samaritans” who came to help. One was just jogging by when she thought the officer was going to die after being hit. Brown said SDPD is thankful for the quick thinking. “They (the witnesses) took it very seriously. They felt like the officer was in grave danger and stayed with him and called us. We're grateful for that. We're grateful that people were willing to come to the aid of our officer and share with us what they saw."
Officers say originally the suspect would have been charged with assault on an officer but once they talked to the officer and the witnesses who saw it happen the charges were upgraded to attempted murder. “When you make a serious attempt on someone's life it goes beyond assault with a deadly weapon charge and we're looking more to attempt homicide. You don't have to die for the homicide unit to come out and investigate."
Brown said they’ve already made contact with the car’s owner and the car was not reported stolen. “The registered owner is not the person believed to be in possession of the car. But we have talked to the owner and he's being very cooperative."